Texas parents beware: your children are being "imperiled" by "abortion peddlers" who want to teach them "sex education."

No. No, they're not. Although at some point someone might want to teach them to put a condom on a banana, and conservative lawmakers, predictably, want to make damn sure that person's not from Planned Parenthood.

Freshman State Rep. Jeff Leach, a Republican lawyer from Plano, filed a bill yesterday with several co-authors that they're calling the "Texas Parental Control Accountability Act." The bill, H.B. 1057, the full text of which is right here, mandates that a parent or guardian provide written consent before a student can get "human sexuality or family planning instruction."

Texas state law already allows parents to opt their children out of sex ed classes, and says they should be informed on what the kids are being taught. But the permission slip aspect isn't the real aim of the bill. Leach also wants to prevent certain people or agencies from providing sex ed, namely "an entity or individual that performs abortions or an affiliate of an entity or individual that performs abortions."

You see where we're going here.

During the fight to keep Planned Parenthood's health clinics out of the Women's Health Program, the term "abortion affiliate" has become Texas conservative code for Planned Parenthood. Leach's bill goes on to say that the same "abortion affiliates" should also be banned from providing educational materials for sex ed classes.

Our children in public schools should not and must not be exposed to third parties that seek to teach misguided and unreliable sex education in classrooms. Additionally, Texas public schools should not be a marketplace for the abortion industry, and Texas taxpayers should not be funding abortion providers' recruiting efforts. Parents have a right to know when third party groups enter our schools to teach on such a personal and private subject as human sexuality, and ultimately, should have the final say on the instruction provider and content. This common-sense legislation promotes parental control and accountability in the classroom.

The idea that Planned Parenthood goes around "recruiting" people to have abortions is a very popular one among anti-abortion groups in the state. Oh look, here comes one of them now, in the very same press release. Elizabeth Graham of Texas Right to Life said the bill "marks the next logical step in keeping funds from the abortion industry."

"After Texas Right to Life's 2011 success in reallocating funds to clean health care agencies and programs," she adds, "we don't want funds flowing to abortion advocates through school contracts. Furthermore, parents should be afforded the confidence that their young children will not be imperiled by abortion peddlers while at school."

Rep. Jodie Laubenberg of Parker, a co-author of the bill along with Reps. Geanie Morrison and Scott Turner claimed that abortion providers "have a financial interest in the area of sexual education," adding, "the classroom is not the proper place to market and recruit clients."

So what the hell is going on here? Is Planned Parenthood handing out abortion sign-up sheets at middle schools?

"It's a shame," Danielle Wells, a spokesperson for Planned Parenthood of Greater Texas, said of the bill. She sounded tired.

"I don't have specifics on sort of the breadth of our programs in public schools across the state," she added. "But we do community education programs." You can see some of them on PPGT's website , where they promote scandalous concepts like "avoiding peer pressure, postponing sexual activity; preventing sexual abuse, teen pregnancy, and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV." The nonprofit has delivered this type of sex-ed program at public and private schools, colleges, youth shelters and even probation and detention facilities.

"In a state with the one of the highest teen birth rates in the nation, this bill would make it harder for schools to teach effective sex education," Quinn writes. "As it should, state law already requires public schools to tell parents what they are teaching about sex education and inform them of their right to review the curriculum and opt their children out of such classes. This bill simply imposes new and completely unnecessary bureaucratic burdens on school districts at a time when the Legislature has already been cutting billions of dollars from public education."

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For one, I think that the programs thus far should be OPT IN, and here's why.

I attended a PTA-paid-for "Aim For Success" parent meeting the other night. While they had some good ideas on responsibility, consequences, etc, they also had a crap load of mis information and completely erroneous facts that in no place were cited as to where they actually pulled the data from. All roads lead to "marriage" and virginity is a "gift" -- both OPINIONs and not the TRUE facts that I want my kid or others out there to have. Not to mention that some people are not ALLOWED to get married, may not want to get married, or do get married and decide that they don't want kids.AIM also blatantly says that contraception does not work and only give failure rates of condoms and not when they and the pill are used effectively. According to state law schools must "(5) teach contraception and condom use in terms of human use reality rates instead of theoretical laboratory rates, IF instruction on contraception and condoms is included in curriculum content."To me, just stating the failure rates (by, let's face it, idiots) is NOT instruction.AIM also told the story of "Ted" who, long story short, looked at porn and couldn't look away once he saw, became addicted to it, and then wound up raping and killing multiple women!(I am not making this s- up!)Oh, and by the way, that "Ted" was Ted Bundy! They pulled this little tidbit from a conservative site that interviewed Bundy who said that most cereal killers watch/ed porn. First off, POOR analogy. Secondly, are we to really trust what a sociopath says??? Thirdly, it's like saying if you're addicted to donuts, you're gonna knock off a donut shop.Like most sane individuals, I don't want ANY teen to be fooling around. Period. But I also don[t want kids out there to think that condoms do not work, if you look at porn you'll turn into a pscyho killer, etc. It's a public health issue as there are some teens in these classes that have already had intercourse. I really don't want them getting STD or spreading that "love" around to the general populace.

p.s. this far from science class was held DURING science classes! We NEED more science instruction in Texas, not less, and am appalled that my child missed that for this. If others want this obviously religious-based instruction, they can do so at their temples/churches, or NOT during school hours.

So, they are basically writing a law so parents can decide
on if they want their child to attend?
So they are given the choice correct?
So if PP's approach is correct, then why would there be a dip in their
business in schools? Why not give the
parents the option (remember, they pay for the school through tax dollars) to
decide on who and how their child is taught sex ed? While I would be the first to agree that we
have some bonehead decisions in Austin (hard line on abortion but kill those
dang people in jail to lower population) I think there isn't anything wrong
with putting some parental controls on this important piece. Should the parent have the ability to say yes
or no if McDonald's wants to teach them nutrition? Remember, this is outside of their normal curriculum
so I think having that option is valid.

I'm pro- FREE abortion & pro-FREE birth control, because abortion and birth control prevent the births of literally tens of thousands of future black criminals every single year. Imagine how bad the crime situation in America would be if all those blacks had been born instead of getting aborted for the last 40 years! SHUDDER! Free abortion clinics should be in every shopping center of Dallas' "ten worst zip codes".

full disclosure: my child participated as a member of PP group TACT, they're both informative and theatrical. The presenters always have q and a after their skits, skits that dealt with unprotected sex, date abuse, drug use and pregnancy.

You would be shocked by how little the audience knew, and the ridiculous inaccurate things they believed. People thought that if they had sex standing up they wouldn't get pregnant! abuse was never brought up by anyone other than these people at TACT, girls had no idea how they were used by the boys. They thought it was normal to be physically hit, to have sex demanded from them as payment for "being bad". That date rape was the girls fault for leading the guy on. That no one would get STI if there was no orgasm.

Reps. Leach, Laubenberg, Morrison and Turner are just plain idiots to put forth this bill. If anything the activities by PP and others in educating teens are reducing the number of STI and unplanned pregnancies, and therefore reducing the number of abortions.

Leave it to a conservative to cut off access to sex education and contraceptives in the hope that there will be fewer abortions. absolute cretins.

Besides that, don't we all enjoy paying for the food and housing for the young mothers through higher taxes for social services... Wait a second isn't that counter to what the Republican party stands for?

People ask me how I can be conservative on so many levels and still be so adamantly opposed to the Republican party. This is one of the main reasons.

How about this as an option: When your kids ask you questions about sex and where babies come from, give them the real answer, not some fantasy about storks or alien pods or whatever else. If you're honest with your kids about sex from the beginning, they're more likely to come to you later with questions or when they're feeling pressure. They wont always come to you, of course, but more likely is better odds than 'not at all'. I'm all for free condoms in school, planned parenthood giving sex ed classes and mandatory instruction on the lifetime cost of having a baby as a teenager (actual costs, missed opportunities, educational deficiency, etc.) The one teaching approach in regards to sex education that history has shown to be totally ineffective? Teaching abstinence.

The Merlan bunch - these are the same clowns who diss morality in schools, demand condoms be passed out to minors because abstinence is soooo Paul Harvey, then demand we yank soft drinks and feed the little munchkins twigs and nuts to control their fatness.

This effort is taking the same old disproven method of attack that if they can silence every aspect where the word "abortion" might come up then the practice will suddenly disappear because nobody will know it exists. That's the same logic used to promote abstinence-only sex education, as well; never talk about sex, that way un-married people won't find out about it. They won't be happy until the words "planned" and "parenthood" are never together in the same sentence, due to their willfully ignorant view that Planned Parenthood is the cause of all abortions, everywhere.

Do these morons not realize that their precious little angels have internet access, which has free porn 24/7/365? I think they've seen plenty of sex demonstrations. Problem is, they want to try it themselves. And those of us that live in reality knows what happens when boy sticks dick in girl.

Did Planned Parenthood just refuse to donate to the Republican Party in Texas? I can't fathom another reason for their crusade. They can't possibly believe this crap. It's becoming vindictive at this point.

As a resident of Plano, I am so ashamed I don't know what to say. These supposedly "educated" people are completely indoctrinated to pull the "R" straight party lever in every election, even if it results in clowns like Leach. I bet this guy also believes there are witches in Planned Parenthood casting spells on our children. Seriously.

@rbtxcat75 The Aim for Success Program was DURING school hours, held during Science class, so to me, that's curriculum. Also, opting out makes teens feel embarrassed and selectively showcases just the few whose parents actually pay attention to EXACTLY what these scary programs say. Let people opt IN.My kids are lucky that they can be debriefed as to actual facts and figures. Sadly, more kids in our particular school come from not-so-great family units and are particularly the ones that need ALL contraceptive information.

@drtz No, he wants the children to be exposed to misguided and stupid sex education from every other cockanamie source, including his own party. I wouldn't dream of going to the GOP for science education, they have demonstrated many times in the recent past that they have no clue about science as a concept or practice, so I fail to see why they have any authority to bloviate like this about sex education.

@holmantx@RTGolden1 It never worked. Teenagers have always been sexually active. It's a biological function, not a standardized test. Teen pregnancies were simply hidden away in dark corners until the baby was born. The teen mother was ostracized, a spectacle of public shame in most cases.

If you have, or had, teenage kids and truly believe that they weren't sexually active, or seriously contemplating sexual activity, congratulations!, you belong to the very high percentage of extremely stupid parents whose kids had them completely buffaloed.

@holmantx@Chuck_Schick@RTGolden1 Actually, because I cannot stand TX's stance on this, I've researched this on CDC and that's not true. Do we want teenagers doing it early and often? Of course not! But denying that ALL kids, even the ones who pledge "purity" (who, by the way, according to non-biased studies, never "succeed") do not have sex is more of a public health issue than anything. Having them come out of these faux classes that spout condoms and contraceptives as ineffective, doesn't help them or us in the general populace, period.

@holmantx@Chuck_Schick@RTGolden1 Teaching abstinence only is proverbially sticking your head in the sand. "We told them not to have sex, so we KNOW they're not having sex." is the premise you're working on.

Abstinence only sex ed is still the predominant course of action in most schools across this state, and we've got a booming teen pregnancy problem going on.

How can you call me idiotic, when, teen pregnancy is booming despite a heavier than called for emphasis on abstinence? It doesn't work. It may work for a small percentage of students, but not for the majority. Why? My guess would be that abstinence works when preaching to the choir. Those kids from stable families, not being raised by TV surrogates, and already predisposed to abstain will probably abstain. Those not from stable families, raised on a steady diet of TV and video games probably won't abstain. Show me a credible study that demonstrates an advantage to abstinence teaching over teaching protected sex and giving students the means to benefit from the lessons. I'm willing to bet you can't find one. I've looked, I couldn't find one.

Rather than pretend my own kids were going to be the exception that proves the rule, I tried to impart a little wisdom to them. I taught them that it is far better to save sex for marriage, but, by God, if you're going to have sex, use protection. And I let them know where to get it. I also taught them to bring their own. Never trust the other person to have it.

yes, there are more single women giving birth. there are also more single women who are not marrying. the ability of a women to support themselves, and also support a child, has allowed this to happen. nothing is wrong with the women's decision.

passing out condoms to sexually active youth reflects reality. they are sexually active, the condom only helps prevent conception.

the analogy to food in schools is absurd. the diet isn't 'controlled" as the student is able to eat whatever they want outside of school. however, providing high fat is unhealthy and high sugar produces poor behavior.

"zero tolerance"? really? should we put a letter on them and place them in scaffolds?

To say copulation cannot be controlled, but their diet CAN be by restricting what they eat in school to control obesity . . . . ?

So zero tolerance on guns in schools cannot control guns being brought to school? Then why bust 10 year olds for going BANG with their finger? Or drawing one on a sheet of paper?

Come on, people. Zero tolerance on fornicating minors works better than kissing the paper on it by handing out condoms. To say it doesn't work is idiotic on the face of it. Passing out condoms just increases the activity.